"Skibbereen", also known as "Dear Old Skibbereen", "Farewell to Skibbereen", or "Revenge For Skibbereen", is an Irish folk song, in the form of a dialogue wherein a father tells his son about the Irish famine, being evicted from their home, and the need to flee as a result of the Young Ireland rebellion of 1848. [1]
The song traces back from at least 1869, in The Wearing Of The Green Songbook, where it was sung with the melody of the music "The Wearing of the Green", and not with the more melancholic melody we know today. [2] Another early publication of the song was in a 19th-century publication, The Irish Singer's Own Book (Noonan, Boston, 1880). [3] In both of those early sources, the song is attributed to Patrick Carpenter, a poet native of Skibereen. It was published in 1915 by Herbert Hughes who wrote that it had been collected in County Tyrone, and that it was a traditional ballad of the famine. [4] It was recorded by John Lomax from Irish immigrants in Michigan in the 1930s.
The son in the song asks his father why he left the village of Skibbereen, in County Cork, Ireland, to live in another country, to which the father tells him of the hardship he faced in his homeland. It ends on a vengeful note expressed by the son.
The lyrics as they appear in Hughes' Irish Country Songs are as follows:
"O father dear, I oft-times hear you talk of Erin's Isle,
Her lofty scenes and valleys green, her mountains rude and wild.
They say it is a pretty place wherein a prince might dwell.
And why did you abandon it, the reason to me tell."
"My son, I loved our native land with energy and pride,
Until a blight came on my land, my sheep and cattle died.
The rent and taxes were to pay, I could not them redeem,
And that's the cruel reason why I left old Skibbereen.
"Oh it's well I do remember that bleak December day,
The landlord and the sheriff came to drive us all away.
They set my roof on fire with their demon yellow spleen,
And that's another reason why I left old Skibbereen.
"Your mother too, (God rest her soul) lay on the snowy ground.
She fainted o'er in anguish with the desolation round.
She never rose, but passed away from life to immortal dream,
And found a quiet grave, my boy, in dear old Skibbereen.
"And you were only two years old and feeble was your frame.
I could not leave you with your friends, you bore your father's name.
I wrapped you in my cóta mór at the dark of night unseen.
I heaved a sigh and bid goodbye to dear old Skibbereen.
"It's well I do remember the year of forty eight,
When I arose with Erin's boys to battle against the fate.
I was hunted thro' the mountains like a traitor to the Queen,
And that's another reason why I left old Skibbereen."
"O father dear, the day will come when vengeance loud will call,
And we will rise with Erin's boys to rally one and all.
I'll be the man to lead the van beneath our flag of green,
And loud and high will raise the cry 'Revenge for Skibbereen.'" [4]
 |
The song has been performed live and recorded by The Dubliners, Wolfe Tones and Sinéad O'Connor, as well as by many other contemporary Irish artists. In the film Michael Collins the Collins character, played by Liam Neeson, sings the song. [5] It makes an appearance in the Victoria television series.
| Artist | Album | Year of release |
|---|---|---|
| The Wolfe Tones | Rifles of the I.R.A. | 1969 |
| The Dubliners | Plain and Simple | 1973 |
| Four to the Bar | Another Son | 1995 |
| Irish Stew of Sindidun | So Many Words... | 2005 |
The "Londonderry Air" is an Irish air that originated in County Londonderry, first recorded in the nineteenth century. The tune is played as the victory sporting anthem of Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games. The song "Danny Boy" written by English lawyer Fred Weatherly uses the tune, with a set of lyrics written in the early 20th century.
Robert William Gary Moore was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career, he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, heavy metal and jazz fusion.
Skibbereen is a town in County Cork, Ireland. It is located in West Cork on the N71 national secondary road. The River Ilen runs through the town; it reaches the sea about 12 kilometres away, at the seaside village of Baltimore. As of the 2022 census, the population of the town was 2,903. The town of Skibbereen, sometimes shortened to "Skibb", is in the Cork South-West Dáil constituency, which has three seats.
An answer song, response song or answer record is a song made in answer to a previous song, normally by another artist. The concept became widespread in blues and R&B recorded music in the 1930s to the 1950s. Answer songs were also popular in country music in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, sometimes as female responses to an original hit by a male artist or male responses to a hit by a female artist.
"The Sash" is a ballad from the Province of Ulster in the north of Ireland commemorating the victory of King William III in the Williamite War in Ireland in 1690–1691. The lyrics mention the 1689 Siege of Derry, the 1689 Battle of Newtownbutler near Enniskillen, the 1691 Battle of Aughrim, and the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. It is popular amongst Ulster loyalists and many other unionists in Northern Ireland, it also remains a popular folk ballad in parts of Ireland and Scotland.
"She Moved Through the Fair" is a traditional Irish folk song, with a number of iterations, that has been performed and recorded many times. The narrator sees his lover move away from him through the fair, after telling him that since her family will approve, "it will not be long [love] 'til our wedding day". She returns as a ghost at night, and repeats the words again, intimating her own tragic death and the couple's potential reunion in the afterlife. There are numerous alternate versions, some sung about a male lover, with different lyrics, such as "Our Wedding Day" and "My Young Love Said to Me", among others.
"Danny Boy" is a song with lyrics written by English lawyer Frederic Weatherly in 1910, and set to the traditional Irish melody of "Londonderry Air" in 1913.
"The Bonnie Blue Flag", also known as "We Are a Band of Brothers", is an 1861 marching song associated with the Confederate States of America. The words were written by the entertainer Harry McCarthy, with the melody taken from the song "The Irish Jaunting Car". The song's title refers to the unofficial first flag of the Confederacy, the Bonnie Blue Flag. The left flag on the sheet-music is the Bonnie Blue Flag.
The Blasting Room is a recording studio in Fort Collins, Colorado. Founded by members of the punk rock band All in 1994, it is owned and operated by musician Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore. The studio is known for recording and producing many punk rock bands, with Stevenson and Livermore serving as in-house audio engineers and record producers.
"Streets of Laredo", also known as "The Dying Cowboy", is a famous American cowboy ballad in which a dying ranger tells his story to another cowboy. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
No Compromise is the second album release by contemporary Christian music artist Keith Green, released in 1978.
"The Maid Freed from the Gallows" is one of many titles of a centuries-old folk song about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner. Other variants and/or titles include "The Gallows Pole", "The Gallis Pole", "Hangman", "The Prickle-Holly Bush", "The Golden Ball", and "Hold Up Your Hand, Old Joshua She Cried." In the collection of ballads compiled by Francis James Child in the late 19th century, it is indexed as Child Ballad number 95; 11 variants, some fragmentary, are indexed as 95A to 95K. The Roud Folk Song Index identifies it as number 144.
Spancil Hill, or in original spelling Spancilhill, is a traditional Irish folk ballad composed by Michael Considine (1850–73), who was born in Spancil Hill and migrated to the US. It bemoans the plight of the Irish emigrants who so longed for home from their new lives in America. This song is sung by a man who longs for his home in Spancill Hill, County Clare, his friends and the love he left there. All the characters and places in this song are real.
Herbert Hughes was an Irish composer, music critic and a collector and arranger of Irish folksongs. He was the father of Spike Hughes.
The Ash Grove is a traditional Welsh folk song whose melody has been set to numerous sets of lyrics. The best-known English lyrics were written by Thomas Oliphant in the 19th century.
Rosemary Lane"is an English folksong: a ballad that tells a story about the seduction of a domestic servant by a sailor. According to Roud and Bishop
"An extremely widespread song, in Britain and America. Its potential for bawdry means that it was popular in male-centred contexts such as rugby clubs, army barracks and particularly in the navy, where it can still be heard, but traditional versions were often collected from women as well as men."
Charlotte Alington Pye Barnard was an English poet and composer of ballads and hymns, who often wrote under the pseudonym Claribel. She wrote over 100 songs as well as two volumes of verse, and became the most commercially successful balled composer managed by her publishers Boosey's, with whom she established one of the first royalty arrangements.